Eyes craved to see him
Darkness did defy slim
I sat under the dark cover
Heart wandering know not where....
Eyes sought my gleam
Amidst the glitter stream
They gazed and gazed
In the sky and beyond
Found not my star
Felt but Amor's spell afar
All the coy stars that twinkled
Had their blushes sprinkled
Elegant Moon who ruled with grace
Did yield to the cloud's embrace!
You see, Love's everywhere,
The Moon, stars and clouds not to spare,
Why then are you hiding hell-bent ?
Come, soothe my eyes ere the night's spent
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Honours A.D.
If a weekend-newpaper reader like me can get to notice umpteen number of tributes to Amrita Pritam, one of the great writers pre-independent India had borne, no wonder if regular readers have found a lot more. All I knew of Amrita Pritam was that she was a Punjabi writer reknowned for her poems which were translated to quite some languages for their sheer worth. Back in school, at an age when poems meant nothing more than a bundle of lines putting forth a challenge to our retention and recalling strength to fetch those precious 5 marks or even less, all I wished was to have the simplest poems ever to make my life simple. It can't be denied that, if not all, some of her poems did fall into that category. Thus far, this is all this Indian knew of a legendary Indian writer.
To be precise, after the passing away of this great soul on 31st Oct,2005, I must have read around seven articles ( recall, I am a weekend newspaper reader) dedicated to her calibre each one depicting a different face of Amrita. If I have to summarise all that I read of her so far, she was a great poetess who emerged in the times when, interalia, education and encouragement was very distant to women. All the awards in her kitty speak for themselves.She was an ultimate witness to the aftermath of India-Pakistan partition with a lot of her poems succeeding completely in bringing the sight in front of our eyes. No doubt, she was a patriot every inch. At around the age when many like me would have done nothing more than playing with peers, she questioned the unfriendly attitude exhibited by her family towards others communities and always went strong with principles abiding by securalism. To talk a little about her personal life, I guess, her love for her love,which had become the talk of the town, was not any less than that of the legendary figures of the romantic world hit by Cupid's arrow. She was, no doubt, a woman of substance ,being a voice to women born without the vocal cords. And I got to know a lot more of her only after her death. Hence, amidst all this, one worry stands tall. Why is it that we flood all the honours due for a person after his/her resigning to flames? After reading a bunch of articles written by recognised journalists lauding her intellectual and poetic talent, only I know how embarassed I felt for not being aware of a great Indian's achievement. Don't these people hold the responsiblity to send the message across to the unaware lot during the physical existence of 'THE' personalities? Why award Honours A.D degrees while the need is to give justice to their persona when they are very much in flesh and blood? I am sure Amrita never was this aware that she was such a great talent personified in the eyes of the society. She and her likes deserved a whole-hearted applause, the sound of which had to linger in their ears to encourage them to accomplish more. After any diginitary passes away, it can be guessed by any person that the days to follow would treat readers to a lot of articles zeroing in on the personality.One does not require sixth sense for this obvious guess, right? Does it call for a soul relinquish this abode to get his/her acievements appreciated ? I feel, the sphere of journalism can spare some space in the papers to acknowedge the Indian talent. If a film star getting married for the second or third time , or a big shot getting her son married or a cricketer growing his unkempt hair can take space in the front page of the paper, why not these?...... No excuses please!
Hmmm....... this was my proud tribute to an unmatched Amrita. By the way , didn't this fall under the Honours A.D. class? Well yes, but who,besides myself, is to be blamed for this ?
To be precise, after the passing away of this great soul on 31st Oct,2005, I must have read around seven articles ( recall, I am a weekend newspaper reader) dedicated to her calibre each one depicting a different face of Amrita. If I have to summarise all that I read of her so far, she was a great poetess who emerged in the times when, interalia, education and encouragement was very distant to women. All the awards in her kitty speak for themselves.She was an ultimate witness to the aftermath of India-Pakistan partition with a lot of her poems succeeding completely in bringing the sight in front of our eyes. No doubt, she was a patriot every inch. At around the age when many like me would have done nothing more than playing with peers, she questioned the unfriendly attitude exhibited by her family towards others communities and always went strong with principles abiding by securalism. To talk a little about her personal life, I guess, her love for her love,which had become the talk of the town, was not any less than that of the legendary figures of the romantic world hit by Cupid's arrow. She was, no doubt, a woman of substance ,being a voice to women born without the vocal cords. And I got to know a lot more of her only after her death. Hence, amidst all this, one worry stands tall. Why is it that we flood all the honours due for a person after his/her resigning to flames? After reading a bunch of articles written by recognised journalists lauding her intellectual and poetic talent, only I know how embarassed I felt for not being aware of a great Indian's achievement. Don't these people hold the responsiblity to send the message across to the unaware lot during the physical existence of 'THE' personalities? Why award Honours A.D degrees while the need is to give justice to their persona when they are very much in flesh and blood? I am sure Amrita never was this aware that she was such a great talent personified in the eyes of the society. She and her likes deserved a whole-hearted applause, the sound of which had to linger in their ears to encourage them to accomplish more. After any diginitary passes away, it can be guessed by any person that the days to follow would treat readers to a lot of articles zeroing in on the personality.One does not require sixth sense for this obvious guess, right? Does it call for a soul relinquish this abode to get his/her acievements appreciated ? I feel, the sphere of journalism can spare some space in the papers to acknowedge the Indian talent. If a film star getting married for the second or third time , or a big shot getting her son married or a cricketer growing his unkempt hair can take space in the front page of the paper, why not these?...... No excuses please!
Hmmm....... this was my proud tribute to an unmatched Amrita. By the way , didn't this fall under the Honours A.D. class? Well yes, but who,besides myself, is to be blamed for this ?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)